Two days after the police busted an alleged interstate Indian Premier League (IPL) betting racket along the northern coastal stretch at Anjuna, the sleuths conducted another raid in the tourist-popular hub at Calangute.

Two bookies Chandrashekar Thaku from Chattisgarh and Lalit Shyam from Haryana were caught red-handed while accepting bets during the match between Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight riders. In the late Thursday night raid at the hotel premise, the Calangute police also seized 12 mobile phones, two laptops and other articles related to the gambling.

Earlier, the Anjuna police had swooped down on three other persons while accepting bets on the IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. Kiran Singh Vaghela, 32, Jayanti Vaghela, 33, both residents of Vejaipur in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Narendra Singh, 33, native of Agra, Uttar Pradesh were arrested and Rs 15,270 in cash, two laptops, 11 cell phones, one LED TV and set-top box along with other articles were seized from their possession.

The Goa police have put stringent check on the suspected betting dens from where the syndicates are likely to operate for every single match. A senior IPS officer told TNV reporter that separate teams will conduct raids at all the gambling dens when the semi-finals and the final match approach closer. “Every bookie and the gambling dens are our radar,” he said.

The State witnesses atleast five cases of IPL betting every year, particularly when the Kolkata Knight riders hit the match ground. Even last year, four persons were arrested from Porvorim when they were placing bets on a match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrise Hyderabad. One of the biggest raids in Goa was in the year 2013 when the police arrested six bookies, who were operating in a serene village at Candolim for 45 days. The betting syndicate was exposed during a joint investigation of Goa police with their Delhi counterparts.

TEAM TNV